DALE McFEATTERS The skies are becoming increasingly unfriendly
WASHINGTON -- Connoisseurs of airline travel were probably not surprised when the Department of Homeland Security, which seems to have taken over all our air-travel arrangements, gave Korean Air cabin crews permission to carry stun guns in U.S. airspace. Other foreign carriers may follow.
It was inevitable. The pilots on U.S. carriers already have the right to carry guns in the cockpit. These pilots can't be too happy about the repeated rounds of pay and benefits cuts and the prospect of demotion to some short-hop air service in the Dakotas. Does the word "disgruntled" come to mind?
The cabin crews are subject to the same cuts, maybe even worse, and now they may start packing stun guns.
Also on board are armed sky marshals, grumpy over what they see as onerous schedules and under funding. Homeland Security has threatened to fire marshals who talk to the press. According to the Associated Press, five sky marshals were told by their supervisors they could be led away in handcuffs, fired and prosecuted. You can bet this is a group of happy campers.
And to get on the plane, passengers have to run a gauntlet of armed security officers who were told they would be fighting terrorism but find that they are really glorified hall monitors. Don't want to be caught looking at them crossways.
No-fly list
Homeland Security has come up with a Kafkaesque no-fly list that -- arbitrarily, as nearly as anyone can tell -- bars passengers from boarding their flights. If the passenger argues vehemently against what is clearly a bureaucratic gaffe -- you guessed it -- armed police show up to hustle the passenger into airport limbo.
This is a lot of firepower to muster against someone who just wants to visit family in Denver.
As it happens, this is Delta's 75th anniversary and its estimable in-flight magazine, Sky, has been doing a look-back over the carrier's history, including those happy days of not-so-distant memory when people dressed up to fly and the stewardesses dressed up in designer outfits -- sexist, perhaps, but indubitably stylish.
Now, of course, the passengers wear as little as possible so as to get through security.
Of course, we're probably making too much about all that weaponry in the hands of flight crews. But if you inquire about the chances of getting a second little bag of peanuts and the attendant's answer is, "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do you, punk?," you probably shouldn't have asked.
Scripps Howard News Service